Former U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade appeared on MSNBC yesterday to provide her thoughts on the Special Counsel’s report. McQuade does not believe Robert Mueller’s report is “imminent” and that it may instead be released “in the coming months” due to one important holdup: Donald Trump Junior and Jared Kushner are being investigated further.

Barbara McQuade’s statements and beliefs are based on the redactions in Mueller’s latest filing. She specifically points to redactions relating to Michael Cohen. Because Michael Cohen has been cooperating, it’s not hard to guess that some of that cooperation involves the Trump Tower Moscow negotiations, as well as the meeting held at Trump Tower, both of which include Junior and Kushner.

Based on the apparent timeline of the tower negotiations, McQuade thinks that those negotiations explain Trump’s “positive declarations” about Vladimir Putin, which makes sense when you think about. She further points out that if those negotiations were ongoing, as we believe they are, it “could also raise questions about what else might have been on the negotiating table for the project, particularly if he won the presidency.” Given Trump’s actions on various issues, it does appear that he made some type of promises to Putin, against the best interests of the United States.

McQuade also clarified (for those who haven’t been listening) that “collusion” is not a crime but that the Special Counsel is rightfully investigating “conspiracy,” which is a crime. She makes the further point that if Trump and his “amen corner” spokespeople SSarah Huckabee Sanders and Kellyanne Conway are so confident in Trump’s innocence, why does Trump go out of his way to attack law enforcement and Mueller?

Most of Trump’s actions have us all scratching our heads, but this question is very telling. Most innocent people will do anything to prove their innocence, including cooperating with an investigation. If Trump is so innocent, why does he repeatedly call the Special Counsel’s investigation a “witch hunt” and continue to scream “no collusion,” which as McQuade points out, isn’t even a crime? Even if the continued probe does in fact target Junior and Kushner, what does that have to do with Trump? Everything.

It’s safe to say that neither Kushner nor Junior would make any moves on behalf of Trump’s businesses without his input. Junior’s lies to the Senate Judiciary Committee that he knew “very little” about Trump Tower Moscow and that the project “died of deal fatigue” will likely become the center of Mueller’s probe. Michael Cohen has told Mueller the entire truth, and even Rudy Giuliani told The New York Times that Trump Sr. told him that negotiations were ongoing throughout the presidential campaign (though he claimed to later “have no recollection” of the timeline.

Pardon the cliché, but in the words of Shakespeare, methinks they doth protest too much. They are lying, and they know it. We know it, for that matter. I for one will be ecstatic when this is proven. I suspect many of you will be as well.